What you did: I clicked the "Save" button on the new contact form.
What should have happened: The contact should appear in my contacts list.
What happened instead: Nothing happens. The form stays open and the contact doesn't save.
When something isn't working
When Play builds something that doesn't work as expected, describe the problem clearly. Play can debug, fix, and improve—but it needs to understand what went wrong.
The three-part explanation
When something isn't working, explain:
What you did — the action you took or the prompt you gave
What should have happened — your expected outcome
What happened instead — the actual result or error
This pattern helps Play pinpoint the issue quickly. Instead of guessing, Play knows exactly where to look.
Examples
Example: Button not saving data
Example: Filter not working
What you did: I selected "High Priority" in the filter dropdown.
What should have happened: The table should show only high-priority items.
What happened instead: The table still shows all items regardless of priority.
Example: Automation not running
What you did: I added a new row to the spreadsheet that should trigger the email automation.
What should have happened: Play should send a confirmation email to the address in that row.
What happened instead: No email was sent.
When the same thing keeps failing
If you've tried a few times and it's still not working, ask Play to investigate the underlying issue and refactor that part of the system.
Use language like:
"This has failed three times. Can you investigate why and refactor the save logic?"
"The filter still isn't working. Look into the data flow and fix the root cause."
"This keeps breaking. Can you redesign this part to be more reliable?"
Play can examine the structure of your app, identify weak points, and rebuild components to be more robust. Asking for investigation and refactoring is often faster than incremental fixes.
For repeated issues, see Investigate and refactor.
Share context from your view
Mention specific elements you see in the interface. "The error message says 'Connection failed'" gives Play a concrete clue. "There's a red banner at the top" is more helpful than "something is broken."
What's next
For general prompting patterns, see Just describe what you want.
For repeated issues, see Investigate and refactor.
For research tasks, see Using Play for research.
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